Developing our rhythm of prayer
[3] Wed 21 March 2018
[3] Wed 21 March 2018
Our theme this week was becoming a community but we didn't get onto this because we had so much interest and conversation about our rhythm of prayer. We will pick up this theme of community again next week.
We fed back on how it is going praying each day. We all value the rhythm of morning and evening. Some find it a challenge to remember or be disciplined to stick to that time. But agreed we should continue with this rhythm and that it's good for us. Quite a few said having a set prayer is really useful.
This week we are going to be praying for one other person in the group - we put our names in a bowl and took one out each.
Then Francesca lead us in forming our own prayers. She got us to read Matthew 14:22-33 and ponder on bits of the story that spoke to us. We then explored how those aspects of the story made us feel and what our response was to God. Then we shared in our groups and formed a prayer from each person's contribution which we can use this week in our prayer times. Those prayers are here.
We went across the car park for the first time to the City Life Sacred Space to pray these prayers together. It was very powerful.
Sarah in our group had asked God how He wanted us to develop our rhythm of prayer and she felt we should find out about issues facing the people of Southampton and pray in response to those. As a result two members of the group are going to research mental health issues and bring prayer topics around this to next week's meeting. We can use that information during the following week when we pray.
This is our rhythm of prayer for this week:
Pray morning and evening
For set prayer use the Lord's prayer and/or the prayers we wrote this week
Pray for another member of the group (we put everyone's name in a bowl and pulled out one each). Next week bring any scriptures or words of encouragement God gives you for that person.